If someone sets a PDF to uneditable, you have nothing to do but export it to PS or XPS and then go at it with a graphics program. Most such forms are meant to be printed, written out manually and re-scanned (manually), even the ones where the text fields actually do work properly, they have to be printed and re-scanned, or just the form info can be saved (as an xml format), and sent back to the form originator, which - frankly - always seemed pretty error prone to me (unless the producer version controls their forms very carefully).
Apple Preview is pretty good about letting you add content to a PDF... The versions in Lion & Mountain Lion will even detect horizontal/almost horizontal lines and snap text input to them. I really like the Signature features, too. I filled out all of the paperwork for my current job with Preview.
If the auto text entry doesn't work, click the Show Edit Toolbar button (next to the search box) and manually add text boxes.
If it's edit-locked, there was a time (might still be) when the Preview app would let you save a PDF from the print dialog, giving you a new PDF from the edit-locked version. That might be worth a try?
I'll try that just to test it, this is what eventually worked for me:
In Acrobat 9 PRO, you have to select "Forms" --> "Add or Edit Fields" then let Acrobat Chew through the document for a few minutes (it's only 8 pages long)!!
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If the auto text entry doesn't work, click the Show Edit Toolbar button (next to the search box) and manually add text boxes.
If it's edit-locked, there was a time (might still be) when the Preview app would let you save a PDF from the print dialog, giving you a new PDF from the edit-locked version. That might be worth a try?
Reply
In Acrobat 9 PRO, you have to select "Forms" --> "Add or Edit Fields" then let Acrobat Chew through the document for a few minutes (it's only 8 pages long)!!
This results in blue boxes you can fill in
Yay for excellent and intuitive user interfaces!
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